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Melbourne Festival: Musician Ben Walsh connects India and Australia with Fearless Nadia

Phoebe Yuen

Wed Oct 02 2013

Ben-Walsh-Orkestra-and-Fearless-Nadia

PHOEBE Yuen caught up with musician Ben Walsh where he talked about his performing career and his upcoming show, Fearless Nadia, at the Melbourne Festival. 

Though he started drumming, acting and dancing at a young age, Ben Walsh never considered performing as a job, but viewed it as something that he just loved doing.

“I’m always involved in performance that favours interesting musical collaborations…[and] I always try to perform in projects that excite me,” said Ben.

Often seen playing drums and composing scores, Ben, as an artist and musician, has worked in a variety of different venues, including theatre performances, outdoor festivals, electronic clubs and even circus tents. With an undeniably strong passion for music, Ben’s glad that he gets to do what he loves as a career.

“I was touring the world at the age of 18, but thankfully I haven’t had to do anything since,” he said.

Although Ben has been involved in many performances, Ben recalls that his time last year year in India was one of his career highlights as he was the only Australian to share the stage with 75 Indian drummers and musicians.

“[We] know very little about her in this country [which] is a real shame [so] it’s one of the most exciting factors in this production – to [be able to] reunite Australian audiences with her work,” he said.

Since then, Ben has had close ties with Indian culture and music. At this year’s Melbourne Festival, Ben will perform an original score alongside 12 Australian and Indian musicians to pay tribute to the Australian-born Bollywood superstar, Fearless Nadia.

The show, aptly titled, Fearless Nadia, coincides with the 100 year anniversary of Indian cinema and pays homage to the silent film era superstar.

It brings back Bollywood’s silent queen of the big screen and introduces her to modern audiences. The musical performance will be set to scenes from the 1940 film, Diamond Queen, Nadia’s most famous film.

“[We] know very little about her in this country [which] is a real shame [so] it’s one of the most exciting factors in this production – to [be able to] reunite Australian audiences with her work,” he said.

Ben's show will feature an original score played against the backdrop of Fearless Nadia's most famous film, Diamond Queen. Image supplied.

Ben’s show will feature an original score played against the backdrop of Fearless Nadia’s most famous film, Diamond Queen. Image supplied.

As the composer of the show, Ben faced quite a number of difficulties before composing the score. It took him a total of six months to finish the work. Conceptualising the show and figuring out how best to present the different sounds of Indian music to the audience was a challenge in itself for Ben.

“I had to watch a very old film and re-edit it for a modern-day audience. This turned out to be quite a task as the film was over two hours long.”

“Before I could start making music I had to tackle the barrier between the world of Indian classical music and Western notated music.”

Despite the difficulties, Ben finds the music to be quite sophisticated.

“I find Indian classical to be highly evolved, deeply spiritual, mathematically phenomenal, and one of the world’s greatest examples of a classical form”

“Find your own voice and don’t give up on your endeavours. Most importantly, don’t sell out or water down your ideas just to keep your head above it.”

When asked about what advice he would give to students interested in music and performance, Ben points out that learning from institutions was not the only way to know more about music.

“I had a very bizarre upbringing and as much as I believe that universities can be a phenomenal source of learning, there are some things we cannot learn from books and from lecturers,” he said.

“Find your own voice and don’t give up on your endeavours. Most importantly, don’t sell out or water down your ideas just to keep your head above it.”

Catch Ben’s show Fearless Nadia on October 13 at 7.00pm. The show will take place at the Melbourne Recital Centre (Elisabeth Murdoch Hall). The show is part of the Melbourne Festival program which begins from October 11 – October 27. Tickets to the Fearless Nadia show can be booked at the Melbourne Recital Centre website

For the full program of the Melbourne Festival, visit the festival’s official website.

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